Mike Miller, a director at Symbiocracy Inc., will be a panelist during the Swedish–American Entrepreneurial Days in Goteborg, Sweden from Nov. 8 – 10, 2010. His panel’s topic is “”How to Sell to Americans – U.S. Business Culture.” Mike will post his presentation before he leaves for Sweden November 2.

The Swedish–American Entrepreneurial Days has become the most important trade and networking event in Sweden, providing an effective platform for trade and commerce between the U.S. and Sweden. Since 1997, the Entrepreneurial Days has enabled small, medium, and large companies to connect and develop new business. For the past thirteen years the Entrepreneurial Days has not only grown larger, but has also become global in scope with American business leaders networking with their Swedish counterparts. What makes this business-to-business event so worthwhile and successful is that it brings together entrepreneurs and experts from a variety of fields – all sharing their expertise and knowledge of American and EU markets.

For more information, see: http://sacc-edays.org/goteborg/speakers/#9

Mike spent fourteen years in corporate America with Bendix and Allied Signal corporations. Positions he held included divisional chief marketing officer, new product development manager, marketing channel manager, national sales manager, marketing communications manager and acquisition manager, . Since 1989, he has been in the consulting industry. Of Mike’s current clients, three are start up firms. He holds a B.S., Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA), and a M.B.A. from Loyola Marymount University, (Los Angeles, CA), and is certified by the Center for Creative Leadership (Greensboro, North Carolina) to conduct 360º leader assessment and development programs.

Over the last 20 years, one observation I have gained from working with startup companies, or any company, is the failure of management to assign the right talent for the right roles. A serial entrepreneur told me once, “You can take my ideas, money, computers, equipment, buildings and people and if you only let me have one back, I’ll take my people. I will then restart my business and make better and stronger. You can have the rest.”

So, it cannot be emphasized too strongly the purpose of a business plan is to first and foremost demonstrate you and your management team, Board of Directors and Advisors have the skills, experience and capabilities to start, launch and grow your company.

Through your Business Plan, you demonstrate your business has:

• A robust management team.
• Sufficient demand for our product.
• Sustainable competitive advantage.
• Realistic goals & objectives.
• Well thought out financials.
• The Business Plan also shows investors it has:
• Focus. Too many Business Plans promise too much, too soon.
• A well thought out roadmap to an exit strategy.
• Realistic financial forecasts that show acceptable return to your investors.
• Funding needs that support the forecast.

Some resources:

• Angel Investor Network www.angel-investor-network.com
• Capital Vector (Venture Capital directory) www.capitalvector.com
• Keiretsu Forum SoCal www.keiretsusocal.com
• Los Angeles Venture Association www.lava.org
• Maverick Angels www.maverickangels.com
• Pasadena Angels www.pasadenaangels.com
• Tech Coast Angels www.techcoastangels.com

Mike spent fourteen years in corporate America with Bendix and Allied Signal corporations. Positions he held included divisional chief marketing officer, new product development manager, marketing channel manager, national sales manager, marketing communications manager and acquisition manager, . Since 1989, he has been in the consulting industry. Of Mike’s current clients, three are start up firms. He holds a B.S., Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA), and a M.B.A. from Loyola Marymount University, (Los Angeles, CA), and is certified by the Center for Creative Leadership (Greensboro, North Carolina) to conduct 360º leader assessment and development programs.

In The Art of War, written by Sun Tzu in the 6th century BC, Tzu offers:

“So it is said that if you know your enemies and know yourself, you can win a hundred battles without a single loss. If you only know yourself, but not your opponent, you may win or may lose. If you know neither yourself nor your enemy, you will always endanger yourself.”

As it relates to your business, this approach is not enough. The goal of all intelligence is to take what you have learned to make better business decisions. From making your business the sought after organization to buy from, the result will be increased sales.

To do so, you need to track your competitors, and the business environment you are all in. Changes and trends in the economy, technology, laws / regulations, ways of doing business (remember the sweeping changes the Internet brought on), society, and international opportunities, to name a few issues, will change the way you need to do business. Look at the big picture that is affecting everyone to understand what industries and markets you should stay in and which ones you should enter.

To know more about your markets and the customers within, ask the librarian in your local college or town libraries. The resources provided are usually no charge to the user. Other resources include chambers of commerce, industry associations (many who keep track of industry trends), your own suppliers who usually sell to others in your industry – they have a unique grass roots perspective – and your sales people, agents and/or distributors too.

Post Written by:

Mike Miller, Director
www.Symbiocracy.com

About Mike:

Mike spent fourteen years in corporate America with Bendix and Allied Signal corporations. Positions he held included divisional chief marketing officer, new product development manager, marketing channel manager, national sales manager, marketing communications manager and acquisition manager, . Since 1989, he has been in the consulting industry. Of Mike’s current clients, three are start up firms. He holds a B.S., Industrial Engineering from Lehigh University (Bethlehem, PA), and a M.B.A. from Loyola Marymount University, (Los Angeles, CA), and is certified by the Center for Creative Leadership (Greensboro, North Carolina) to conduct 360º leader assessment and development programs.

I occasionally attend the Thousand Oaks Rotary Club luncheons, and the presenter at last week’s luncheon was really inspiring. The presenter was Tom White, the Executive Vice President of RKS, a “strategy, innovation and design firm” based out of Thousand Oaks, CA.

More than anything, I liked their corporate philosophy. RKS not only works hard to design well, with psycho aesthetics (the idea that it’s not how the consumer feels about the design; it’s how the design makes the consumer feel), they go out of their way to help their clients’ sales. Tom gave an example of this in his presentation:

RKS designed a new water bottle for KOR, the KOR ONE hydration vessel, but by the time the design was complete, KOR didn’t have the budget to produce it. So, instead of letting KOR fend for themselves, RKS went viral with the problem. And, in three months, they had more than enough orders to begin production. Now, they are scrambling to keep up with their orders.

KOR ONE by RKS Design

Who benefited when RKS helped KOR?

RKS – KOR will probably choose RKS for future design challenges, giving RKS more business. KOR will probably also help RKS to get more clients because they will share this story with others. RKS also increased their value; clients will probably pay more if they can trust that RKS is really invested in them as well.

KOR – KOR grew their profit exponentially. They not only were able to get enough orders to produce the water bottles, they received a lot of attention from the publicity.

Consumers – Consumers were able to benefit from a great design